Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 599 Judgment ([-])

Excited music was played on the Dongfang Port Wharf. Liu Weimin, Chairman of the Executive Committee, led a group of military and political officials to stand on the edge of the pier, quietly waiting for the officers and soldiers of the Navy Escort Fleet, who had been away for more than half a year, to set foot on the country again.

As soon as Lu Ming, the commander of the escort fleet, came down to the pier, Liao Meng, the chief of staff of the National Armed Forces, greeted him with a smile, and whispered something in Lu Ming's ear.Lu Ming was also very happy when he heard that, and immediately sent his adjutant to inform the officers of each ship.Soon, enthusiastic cheers erupted from the more than ten ships moored in the port one by one—it turned out that the honor and promotion ceremony will be held on the pier soon, and a large number of officers or soldiers who have made meritorious service in the escort battle will be honored. Medals are awarded, and then the military rank is promoted, while the rest of the officers and soldiers will also receive comfort and bonuses from their superiors.

The grand awarding ceremony was carried out under the blowing of the sea breeze. Lu Ming and 27 officers were promoted to a higher level, and 135 non-commissioned officers or soldiers were sent to the special class of the navigation school for further study.Among them, Lu Ming was awarded the unprecedented rank of colonel in recognition of his courage to lead the team to Europe and his calm command in the battle against the Spanish navy. In addition, he also received a newly-baked silver medal of the Goshawk with two swords.

The Silver Medal was awarded to officers, while the Bronze and Steel Medals were awarded to enlisted men.In addition to the medals, everyone also received a brass commemorative medal for the Tyrrhenian Sea battle, which made the eyes of the few army officers present almost pop with envy.

The royal painter of the military department, Perotta, an Italian immigrant from Florence, watched the entire ceremony. He said that he would spend a year creating two new works after returning: "The Burning Tyrrhenian Sea" and "Naval Commendation". ceremony".Before that, a piece of "The Surrender of Buenos Aires" created by him had been included in the collection of the National Military Museum.

Unofficial persons who had the honor of observing the normal ceremony with Perotta painters were less than [-] immigrants from Livonia and Greece who arrived with the ship (nearly a quarter of the death rate), who at this time were sailors and Under the organization of the Port Authority officials, they entered the immigration isolation camp one by one and accepted a half-month quarantine.Plagues are still raging in many parts of the Old Continent. The east coast, which is already extremely short of population, dare not neglect it. Therefore, the policy of isolation and observation must be implemented, for fear of causing an epidemic disaster on the east coast.

Single women among these newcomers will be enriched into various settlements built in previous years to balance the sex ratio of the local population.As for the remaining Livonians and Cretan Greeks, they will be enriched into several new settlements this year, such as Qingdao Port, Shengjiebao, Baoan Township and other places.Together with the Ming people who arrived there earlier, they will participate in the arduous pioneering activities.

The executive committee's policy towards these new immigrants is becoming more and more "harsh" because land, housing and women are no longer free.Moreover, the executive committee has stricter and stricter requirements for new settlements. Generally speaking, new settlements (if the natural conditions are not too bad) must suffer huge losses in the first year, narrow the loss range in the second year, and lose money in the third year. It's almost time to be self-sufficient.According to this theory, the executive committee set the rules that the new settlements could receive blood transfusions for at most three years. If they could not be self-sufficient within three years, the local chief officer evaluation would be the worst, and the chief officials would immediately leave class and wait for work.

After the award ceremony, the sailors were allowed to take turns to take vacations.Before that, they still need to drive the ship into several shipyards such as Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, Zhenhai Shipyard, Hyundai Special Shipyard, etc., to do a thorough maintenance of the ship.Leaky decking needs to be replaced, damaged canvas needs to be mended, faulty cannon needs to be repaired, plankton needs to be removed from the bottom of the ship, the coating made of tar sulfur glass slag needs to be reapplied, etc., in short, a bunch of things.

The materials and coins brought back with the ship also need to be cleaned up and received.Metals such as copper, lead, and tin, which are urgently needed for industrial production, are hoisted onto small steamships and distributed to various factories; livestock (Lusitano horses, Turkmen horses, and a small number of Raschek horses) will be driven to pasture villages by professionals Breeding in the military horse farm; and what attracted the attention of the executive committee most was the last year's commodity payment recovered from Bordeaux, Florence, Riga, Danzig, Smyrna, Burgas and other commercial stations, Venice Ducat , France Tour River (namely River, named after being cast in Tour Abbey), Imperial Lira (the currency of the Principality of Milan, which is circulated in the Principality of Tuscany), Dutch Ducat, Groz (ie Zero mention), Spanish rials and other currencies filled a large number of cash boxes, with a total of more than 140 million yuan (after deducting the cost of material purchases).

These coins will be transported to the Dayu River Mint as quickly as possible, and then melted into East Bank silver dollars and deposited in the bank to supplement the rapid loss of silver in the country.Nowadays, the amount of silver on the market is getting less and less. According to statistics from the Bureau of Statistics, which was recently split from the Mei Agency, the proportion of wages paid in silver for workers in various industries in China has dropped to about one-seventh, and a large number of bank acceptances Bills of exchange abound.

In retail business transactions, the transaction volume of bank acceptance bills is also increasing day by day, and has gradually reached more than [-]% at present, and is still growing rapidly-no way, who makes coins so scarce?In a country on the east coast where commercial transactions are not very developed and the circulation speed of silver coins is not very fast, the large demand for currency in the market will inevitably make people turn their attention to "paper money".

Of course, this kind of thing is what the officials of the financial system on the East Coast are happy to see, but before that, they still need to solve a rather difficult problem, that is, some of the six-month bank acceptances issued a few months ago It is about to expire, and it will inevitably usher in a peak cashing period.A large number of bill holders will flock to various bank outlets to exchange the due bills on hand for silver dollars. This is quite a test of the capital adequacy ratio of the banking system on the east coast. If something happens at this time, then the government will issue paper money later Credibility will inevitably be greatly affected.

Now, they can finally breathe a sigh of relief.Originally, everyone was still counting on the army that had invaded Asunción to "produce" a sum of money to come back to rescue the emergency. Let's get over the barrier in front of us first, but now it is obvious that there is no such trouble.It can be said that the timely return of this last year's trade payment can be said to have saved the lives of the Ministry of Finance and the two banks.Otherwise, wait until two months later, what do you think they will pay for it?If the army fails to bring back a large amount of silver from Asunción, then they will have to issue new invoices to repay the old invoices, but then their reputation will be bad.

Lu Ming, who had just been promoted to a captain of the navy, is now one of the only two colonels in the navy system. Immediately after the award ceremony, he followed the members of the executive committee to the meeting room on the third floor of the administrative building of the executive committee. A small-scale meeting was held, focusing on reporting on various things that happened during this trip and the European intelligence they obtained, including their attack on Santo Domingo in the Caribbean Sea, which will also be included in the report.

As early as on the way back, Lu Ming had already started to write a special report on what happened along the way. Facing the inquiries from the big bosses in the central government, he just adjusted his thoughts a little and opened his mouth to report: "The relationship with the Kingdom of Spain The naval battle of the Mediterranean Fleet of the Navy in the Tyrrhenian Sea broke the shadow in the minds of the naval officers and soldiers. The battle loss ratio in favor of us also made everyone feel more motivated. There was still some fear of Spain, an old naval power. Mentally, our naval officers and soldiers, after this battle, the inferiority complex will disappear, which is of great significance to our naval construction."

"This battle should have shaken the Spaniards considerably, making them realize that even in their own backyard, the Mediterranean, their control has dwindled - thanks to the Dutch. Insufficient number of battleships, aging ships, outdated tactics, naval talent Due to repeated disastrous defeats, the gears were seriously cut off, which greatly affected the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Navy and became one of the important factors affecting the outcome of this naval battle." Lu Ming continued to report what he concluded after careful consideration, "In addition, Countries in the western Mediterranean, such as Genoa, Savoy, Tuscany, and Milan, have all known our reputation, and even Venice, Ottoman in the eastern Mediterranean, and Morocco in North Africa have recognized our combat effectiveness. China's international status will have great benefits, and this improvement of national status will also bring a lot of tangible or intangible benefits to our country."

"In addition, the defense of the Kingdom of Spain in the Caribbean is somewhat lax. They only built a large number of fortresses and deployed a lot of heavy artillery in the ports of Bello, Cartagena, Havana, Veracruz, etc., but the defense of the rest of the area is completely messed up. .This time my fleet attacked a large number of Spanish towns in Santo Domingo, Spain. The resistance received was minimal, but the spoils received were huge. I recommend continuing this behavior and regularly attacking the Spaniards in the Caribbean. until the end of the war. But in this process, we must choose the right time, that is, try to avoid the time period when the Spanish galleon fleet enters and exits, so as not to suffer losses." Lu Ming finally introduced the time in early June in St. The achievements of Juan and other places, and urged the Central Committee members to approve the normalization of this kind of looting.

But the committee members obviously have their own considerations.Nie Xiaoqian, the finance committee member, asked, "Based on your judgment, does the Kingdom of Spain have any intention of seeking peace? If we expand the war to the Caribbean, will it cause any bad effects?"

(End of this chapter)